Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 28 July 1917.
Olivia Peacock‘s mother, Hannah Pyatt Peacock, was the first cousin of Dr. John Dorsey Barnes, who was born in Tarboro, North Carolina. Hannah Peacock’s mother, Susan Hines Pyatt, was the sister of Harriet Hines Barnes, mother of Dr. Barnes and several daughters who also migrated to Portsmouth, Virginia.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 11 June 1927.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 21 April 1917.
Can you imagine? Each spring, hundreds and hundreds of county school children gathered at the Colored Graded School to launch a parade through the streets of downtown Wilson, led by a brass marching band. (The article says 2000 children marched in 1917. There were only about 20 county schools, none larger than three rooms. That is a thirst for knowledge.) The children’s manual arts exhibits were displayed on the school grounds and in the auditorium an array of dignitaries (including “three white ladies from New York” and Dr. Frank S. Hargrave) graced the stage. Speaker after speaker delivered messages in the Booker T. Washington mode — work hard, be patriotic, know your place. J.D. Reid, principal of the Graded School and supervisor of the black county schools, was recognized for having spearheaded a prodigious fundraising drive, money that likely represented the community’s monetary contribution to the four Rosenwald Schools built in Wilson County in 1917 and ’18 — Williamson, Rocky Branch, Kirby’s, and Lucama. (Just shy of a year later, Reid and Charles L. Coon were embroiled in the disgraceful events that led to a boycott of the Graded School, but let’s stay present….)
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Wilson Daily Times, 12 April 2018.
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In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Robert Bynum, 49; wife Charlotte, 30; and children William Henry, 15, Alice, 13, Ernest, 11, Irene, 10, Earlie, 9, Florence, 5, Rovenia, 3, James Robert, 2, and Samuel Leroy, 1.
In the 1940 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: widow Charlotte Bynum, 44; children Florence, 15, C. Rovenal, 13, James R., 12, and Sam L., 11; stepchildren Ernest, 20, Irene, 19, and Early, 18.
Rocky Mount Telegram, 24 October 2007.
Charlotte Observer, 12 April 1921.
Boisey O. Barnes delivered an oration on “Dissatisfaction, the Cause of Progress” at the ceremony for his graduation from Johnson C. Smith’s high school division.
Today marks the 108th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman. Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.
The only known photograph of the Wilson Normal Collegiate & Industrial Institute.
The school boycott is largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes go unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9 henceforth, I publish links to Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please re-read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.
we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed
the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school
a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings
what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers
lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks
photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools
a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city
womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school
respectful-petition-seeks-reids-removal
lucas-testifies-that-he-accomplished-his-purpose
there-has-been-an-astonishing-occurrence-in-wilson
the-independent-school-thrives
the-incorporation-of-the-w-n-c-i-institute
And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.
Wilson Daily Times, 28 March 1939.
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Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 23 March 1940.
With the destruction by fire of Elm City’s black high school in 1940, the education of local children slammed to a halt. Amanda Mitchell Cameron was in the eighth grade at the time. She recalls that, rather than delay their high school studies, two of her older siblings carpooled to Wilson with a neighborhood boy to attend Darden High School. Most children, however, stayed home until the newly built school opened in 1941.
Wilson Daily Times, 7 January 1921.
The unidentified Judge Harrison was a popular speaker in Wilson, having delivered the first commencement address for graduates of the Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute two years earlier. That speech was notably conservative, and it’s no wonder the Times‘ editor approved.
This aerial photograph of C.H. Darden High School likely dates to the late 1960s. The original Rosenwald-funded section of the school, with later added wings, at right. The building with a central entrance at lower center, adjacent to the original building, is an addition that dates to the 1940s. The buildings behind, which included an auditorium, gymnasium, lunchroom, and additional classroom space, were added in the 1950s and ’60s.
The photo is also interesting for the glimpse of the surrounding neighborhood. The streets behind the school were developed starting in the 1950s from a large parcel owned by Martha Woodard, Louise Fike, and Hadley Blake. Darden faced Carroll Street, of course, and the termini of Viola and East Green Streets. The houses that once stood on land now occupied by Seeds of Hope Wilson’s garden are visible near bottom left.
Vick Elementary School now stands on the site.
Photo courtesy of C.H. Darden High School Alumni Association.
Gravedigging news aside, today was lovely.
The daffodils at Rountree never disappoint.
I sacrificed blood and boot trying get through the briers and wisteria to reach the base of the pole in Rountree Cemetery. I failed, but that’s okay.
I made a detour to Elm City Colored/Heritage Cemetery just to snap a photo of this marvel. Clarence B. Best at his best. I’m not sure why “avenging angel of death” was the motif the family settled on, but it makes for a compelling visual.
And then I pulled up to the house, and my sister’s car was in the driveway. All the way from New Jersey.
This evening I spoke at the library. I always relish these opportunities to share my research with folks who recognize and cherish the names and places I talk about. My family, two of my father’s classmates, my Wilson County Genealogical Society folks, the Lane Street Project Senior Force, Black Wide-Awake readers and followers, library staff, and so many others filled the room. Thank you.
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10.